I am sitting here on my sofa watching Saturday Kitchen still grinning from ear to ear about last night’s dangling session, the summer fishing up here on the East coast has been slow, a few Sole had been showing and lots of micro Bass and a scattering of Rays but nothing really to get excited about. Our target species through August has been Sole, we had been getting them with a couple of nice ones mixed in but still the fishing never set the world on fire. As we moved from August into September the weather was noticeably starting to cool down, the leaves on the trees were starting to take on a darker appearance and the tides were small, this would normally be the time round this coastline when the larger Sole make an appearance and of course we were on a mission to get amongst them.
After a few discussions we had decided on fishing Felixstowe as we knew where and when they should turn up but then during the week I received a message from my fishing wingman Scott Lewin throwing a different venue into the mix. I think deep down we were both getting bored of fishing Felixstowe all the time and this message lit up my mind like a light bulb being flicked on, we had tried our luck here a few times earlier in the year but it just had not fished how it should. Previous years on this mark had always been kind to us when everywhere else was fishing poor, this year though it had seemed devoid of life even when we attacked it with everything we could throw at it. So much so that there came a point where we finally felt it was not going to spark into life until later in the year, we focused on elsewhere and completely forgot about it, putting it back on the shelf until the time came for it to be flavour of the month again, normally Cod season. But this message got me thinking, it was small tides and a non-existent northerly wind, from previous experience this venue likes it fairly rough to fish well, a good-sized tide and a strong easterly wind blowing in your face smashing the waves in and getting the bottom churned up gets the bass feeding well with some decent sized fish coming from here in the past. Would it be worth hitting it in these light conditions, I was in two minds but in the end I decided to take the plunge, dip my toe in the water just to see if it had come alive, if not then it would be nothing lost, just another entry into the fishing diary for times in the future when looking for a venue that will fish in certain conditions. Talking about fishing diaries how many of you keep a journal, it’s a great idea to do it, marking down tide size, winds weather etc whenever you go fishing and if it produces it can be a great help to look back on in the future and after a while you should notice that a lot of the time fish are creatures of habit. The same tide and conditions around the same time of year will quite often fish as it did before and this can be a great help in finding the fish sometimes.

Now back to the preparation for this session, peeler crab will normally be the number 1 bait on this mark, I have fished beside people before trying other baits whilst they are on peeler and I have been absolutely smashed, only catching once I swap to a nice juicy fresh crab bait. The only problem was that it was now the beginning of September and the local crab moult was non-existent, now my mind set is if the crabs are not moulting then the fish will not be tuned onto feeding on them so it’s best to use more conventional baits like worm, squid and fish. I decided to fish just rag-worm in to hope for a sole and maybe a bass or 2, this summer on the East Anglian coast rag-worm as always had been the bait the fish were craving, so with this in mind I managed to grab a pound and a half off my local bait digger (who conveniently enough lives opposite my house) and after speaking to Scott he said he also had rag-worm and he was bringing a pack of squid as well in the hope of a ray. Friday came and after food shopping with the family followed by Minions 3 and lots of popcorn the time had come to get out on the shingle, Scott pulled up outside mine and we loaded the van up and set off on our way. Talk on the short journey to the mark turned as always to fishing and putting the world to rights, I wasn’t too excited about this session though as the fishing hadn’t been great and I felt a bit like the fishing on these tides would be poor with a few bass and sole, telling Scott I wasn’t going to get too excited he as always felt like we would see some action, we were due a good session after all the hours we had put in locally recently for not much reward. Half an hour later from leaving my front door we entered the small seaside village of Bawdsey and were parked up unloading our gear, the weather was slightly cooler after a few downpours during the day but the wind was non-existent, great Sole conditions but still in my mind not much cop for anything else. Once we had made the trek to the mark we looked over the top of the cliff and were met with a beautiful looking sea, flat calm with a slight hint of colour, now the colour boosted my confidence a bit and after a little scramble down the cliff we were on the shingle making the short hike to the chosen point on this long bit of beach.
The whole stretch of this bit of beach is a very shallow reef, only fishable a maximum of 3 hours up, over high and 3 hours down before the water completely empty’s out exposing the extremely rough ground consisting of lots of big clay lumps and channels with rocks and other snags mixed into the equation as well. This is a venue we have taken a bit of time to work out, finding little patches of sand mixed in to the rough ground where the fish will be feeding and it was one of these sand patches we were going to be fishing over tonight. We had around 1.5 hours of flood tide left and my plan was simple 1 rod close in fishing size 5 hooks and little rag-worm baits hoping for a Sole and a popped up whole rag-worm bait on a size 1 hook smacked out as far as I could to see what was lurking. First casts were made and within seconds my popped up distance bait showed signs of interest but nothing came of it and the close in rod on braid was showing the crabs were seriously out in force with constant tugs and plucks being shown up on the sensitive tip of the Vertix Eclipse rod. Meanwhile Scott had already pulled in a small Bass when his distance rod showed a positive tug followed by the tip going and not stopping. FISH ON!! After a nice little scrap a lovely Thornback Ray was on the beach, confidence was now growing and after a couple more fruitless casts on the distance pop up rig the decision was made to scrap that idea and go on the bottom to try for a Ray as well. High tide approached and we both had squid and rag-worm baits at distance, the inside light rods had produced some more small bass between us but apart from the Ray it was still a bit quiet. The good thing about this venue is that we know it fishes better on the ebb the majority of the time so as high came we started to get hopeful this time would be no different.
With the tide just starting to move on the ebb my distance rod went ballistic, with no warning the tip slammed round and wasn’t stopping, in a split second I was into the weight of an angry fish, quickly adjusting the drag this fish was taking line and fighting very hard, what was it?? It definitely wasn’t a Ray the only thing it could be was a Smooth hound but we hardly never get them this far round the coast. The drag was still clicking away but I had gained the upper hand she was tiring and through the water appeared the unmistakeable dorsal of a hound. To say I was elated is an understatement, she looked a double but upon weighing she went 9.14lb, 2 oz’s under a double but I wasn’t bothered, she was beautiful and had me bouncing off the walls. Once released she was sent back on her way and the rod was back in the water again.

Scott was next in with another hound at 6.7lb so he was now a happy chappy, then I heard him shout over he had something nice on his flapper rod, turns out he had a Whiting take the worm bait and a lovely Bass had smashed the whiting managing to hook itself on the size 2 hook he was using… What a bonus

. As the tide run eased off I was getting done over by bootlace Eels on the inside rod, now anybody who fishes with me will tell you that these small rig destroyers are just attracted to me, I can be fishing a beach with my mates and I can guarantee these slimy little blighters will hit my rigs all the time, leaving the others happily fishing but making me keep tying new snoods all night. Then I missed 2 hounds on the bounce, both cracking bites and both times the weight of the fish was on a few seconds before the hook pulled, that in my mind called for a smaller bait so I sent out thumb sized sausages of squid and rag. Scott then had another hound around the same size as his first one which we didn’t bother to weigh and we were still seeing Eels, Whiting and Bass on our other rods fishing flappers close in. With the water now rapidly draining out of the mark we were really having to hit the baits out to get that last little depth of water, just as I had cast out Scott walked over for a chat, within a couple of minutes of the bait in the water the unmistakeable noise of a tripod being moved made us spin round to be met with my rod lurching over taking the tripod with it… I had forgot to set my drag… schoolboy error but soon another hard fighting hound was on the beach being photographed and then returned to the sea. In the distance we could see a pretty lively storm rolling in so decisions were made to have one last cast before we would have to go as when it rains getting out of this mark up the cliffs becomes very very hairy and I for one didn’t want to be doing that. With the lightning illuminating the sky getting closer and closer we were soon up the cliff and making our way back to the van. What a night, when all the local venues were fishing poor this little gem did the business, not bad for 4 hours dangling with me and Scott both agreeing it was the best local session we had seen for a long time, totally unexpected but totally brilliant at the same time.